A good idea, but could be a lot of work for a modest impact. SMEs by definition employ small numbers of people and so the potential impact of changing commuting for some of the staff will be very small. Think about ways to scale this up massively by picking a partner or partners with solid links to hundreds or thousands of SMEs in Ontario.

Some specific questions for consideration:

Overall: How do you define a SME for the purposes of this project? It’s not clear how this project differs from Metrolinx SmartCommute. Please explain.

Marketing: How will you get SMEs to participate in “Sustainable commuting & your profits” training sessions across the province? Marketing plan? How will you deal with the very different commuting challenges and options in various regions of the province? Explain what a “Province wide Campaign” that reaches thousands of SMEs might look like? Can this be done effectively and at a reasonable cost?

Partners: Who are your target partners and have you spoken to any of them? For example, CFIB, Retail Council of Canada, BIAs in different communities? Suggest you speak to them about the commuting challenge before you design this program. Reaching out to SMEs individually across the province sounds like an impossible task.

Financial: Financial benefits to SMEs seem to be related to reduced need for parking spots for staff. Do we know what % of SMEs have their own parking spots or parking lots, and would thus save money if they eliminated them? What is the link between “Sustainable commuting & profits”?

Building a portal for employees just like at Walmart is a cool thing to maintain the community. Employee can login and check their information just like the employees at Walmart. For more information one can read about the portal at walmartone.com